IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jbfnac/v34y2007i5-6p819-839.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

CEO Ownership and Discretionary Investments

Author

Listed:
  • Aloke Ghosh
  • Doocheol Moon
  • Kishore Tandon

Abstract

This study investigates empirically the relationship between CEO ownership and discretionary investments such as R&D and capital expenditures. We assert that the under‐investment problem is high for R&D‐intensive projects, while the over‐investment problem is high for capital expenditures because of differences in risk between the two types of investments. Building on the linkages between investments and investment‐related agency problems, we hypothesize that the relationship between CEO ownership and investments depends on whether increasing ownership mitigates or exacerbates the under‐ or over‐investment problem. We find a non‐linear association between CEO stock ownership and R&D investments; R&D investments increase and then decline across increasing levels of ownership. Further, we find that R&D investments and CEO stock options are positively associated at high levels of option holdings. In contrast, capital expenditures do not vary with CEO ownership (stock or options). Finally, consistent with our underlying assumption, we find that the influence of R&D investments on future firm risk is significantly larger than that of capital expenditures. Our findings indicate that managerial risk aversion affects discretionary investments.

Suggested Citation

  • Aloke Ghosh & Doocheol Moon & Kishore Tandon, 2007. "CEO Ownership and Discretionary Investments," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(5‐6), pages 819-839, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jbfnac:v:34:y:2007:i:5-6:p:819-839
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-5957.2007.02011.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5957.2007.02011.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1468-5957.2007.02011.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Agrawal, Anup & Mandelker, Gershon N, 1987. "Managerial Incentives and Corporate Investment and Financing Decision s," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 42(4), pages 823-837, September.
    2. Lambert, Ra & Larcker, Df & Verrecchia, Re, 1991. "Portfolio Considerations In Valuing Executive-Compensation," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(1), pages 129-149.
    3. Shao-Chi Chang & Sheng-Syan Chen, 2002. "The Wealth Effect of Domestic Joint Ventures: Evidence from Taiwan," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(1&2), pages 201-222.
    4. Myers, Stewart C. & Majluf, Nicholas S., 1984. "Corporate financing and investment decisions when firms have information that investors do not have," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(2), pages 187-221, June.
    5. Stewart C. Myers & Nicholas S. Majluf, 1984. "Corporate Financing and Investment Decisions When Firms Have InformationThat Investors Do Not Have," NBER Working Papers 1396, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Dechow, Patricia M. & Sloan, Richard G., 1991. "Executive incentives and the horizon problem : An empirical investigation," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 51-89, March.
    7. Shao‐Chi Chang & Sheng‐Syan Chen, 2002. "The Wealth Effect of Domestic Joint Ventures: Evidence from Taiwan," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(1‐2), pages 201-222.
    8. Smith, Clifford Jr. & Watts, Ross L., 1992. "The investment opportunity set and corporate financing, dividend, and compensation policies," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 263-292, December.
    9. A. Al-Horani & P. F. Pope & A. W. Stark, 2003. "Research and Development Activity and Expected Returns in the United Kingdom," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 7(1), pages 27-46.
    10. Stulz, ReneM., 1988. "Managerial control of voting rights : Financing policies and the market for corporate control," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(1-2), pages 25-54, January.
    11. Narayanan, M. P., 1996. "Form of Compensation and Managerial Decision Horizon," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 31(4), pages 467-491, December.
    12. Anderson, Ronald C. & Fraser, Donald R., 2000. "Corporate control, bank risk taking, and the health of the banking industry," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 24(8), pages 1383-1398, August.
    13. Yakov Amihud & Baruch Lev, 1981. "Risk Reduction as a Managerial Motive for Conglomerate Mergers," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 12(2), pages 605-617, Autumn.
    14. Himmelberg, Charles P. & Hubbard, R. Glenn & Palia, Darius, 1999. "Understanding the determinants of managerial ownership and the link between ownership and performance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(3), pages 353-384, September.
    15. Fama, Eugene F. & French, Kenneth R., 1993. "Common risk factors in the returns on stocks and bonds," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 3-56, February.
    16. Jensen, Michael C. & Meckling, William H., 1976. "Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 305-360, October.
    17. Takeo Hoshi & Anil Kashyap & David Scharfstein, 1991. "Corporate Structure, Liquidity, and Investment: Evidence from Japanese Industrial Groups," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 106(1), pages 33-60.
    18. Morck, Randall & Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W., 1988. "Management ownership and market valuation : An empirical analysis," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(1-2), pages 293-315, January.
    19. Morck, Randall & Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W., 1988. "Management ownership and market valuation," Scholarly Articles 29407535, Harvard University Department of Economics.
    20. Richard A. Lambert, 1986. "Executive Effort and Selection of Risky Projects," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 17(1), pages 77-88, Spring.
    21. Loughran, Tim & Ritter, Jay R, 1997. "The Operating Performance of Firms Conducting Seasoned Equity Offerings," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(5), pages 1823-1850, December.
    22. Saunders, Anthony & Strock, Elizabeth & Travlos, Nickolaos G, 1990. "Ownership Structure, Deregulation, and Bank Risk Taking," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 45(2), pages 643-654, June.
    23. Stulz, ReneM., 1990. "Managerial discretion and optimal financing policies," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 3-27, July.
    24. Mandelker, Gershon N. & Rhee, S. Ghon, 1984. "The Impact of the Degrees of Operating and Financial Leverage on Systematic Risk of Common Stock," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 19(1), pages 45-57, March.
    25. Bebchuk, Lucian Arye & Stole, Lars A, 1993. "Do Short-Term Objectives Lead to Under- or Overinvestment in Long-Term Projects?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 48(2), pages 719-729, June.
    26. Stephen Bond & Costas Meghir, 1994. "Dynamic Investment Models and the Firm's Financial Policy," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 61(2), pages 197-222.
    27. Berger, Pg, 1993. "Explicit And Implicit Tax Effects Of The Research-And-Development Tax Credit," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(2), pages 131-171.
    28. Jensen, Michael C, 1986. "Agency Costs of Free Cash Flow, Corporate Finance, and Takeovers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(2), pages 323-329, May.
    29. Rosenberg, Barr & McKibben, Walt, 1973. "The Prediction of Systematic and Specific Risk in Common Stocks," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 8(2), pages 317-333, March.
    30. Clifford G. Holderness & Randall S. Kroszner & Dennis P. Sheehan, 1999. "Were the Good Old Days That Good? Changes in Managerial Stock Ownership Since the Great Depression," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 54(2), pages 435-469, April.
    31. Smith, Clifford W. & Stulz, René M., 1985. "The Determinants of Firms' Hedging Policies," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(4), pages 391-405, December.
    32. Lang, Larry & Ofek, Eli & Stulz, Rene M., 1996. "Leverage, investment, and firm growth," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 3-29, January.
    33. McConnell, John J. & Servaes, Henri, 1990. "Additional evidence on equity ownership and corporate value," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 595-612, October.
    34. Esther B. Del Brio & Javier Perote & Julio Pindado, 2003. "Measuring the Impact of Corporate Investment Announcements on Share Prices: The Spanish Experience," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(5‐6), pages 715-747, June.
    35. Eli Ofek & David Yermack, 2000. "Taking Stock: Equity‐Based Compensation and the Evolution of Managerial Ownership," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(3), pages 1367-1384, June.
    36. Demsetz, Harold & Lehn, Kenneth, 1985. "The Structure of Corporate Ownership: Causes and Consequences," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 93(6), pages 1155-1177, December.
    37. Francis, Jennifer & Smith, Abbie, 1995. "Agency costs and innovation some empirical evidence," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(2-3), pages 383-409, April.
    38. Bhagat, Sanjai & Welch, Ivo, 1995. "Corporate research & development investments international comparisons," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(2-3), pages 443-470, April.
    39. Shi, Charles, 2003. "On the trade-off between the future benefits and riskiness of R&D: a bondholders' perspective," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 227-254, June.
    40. Haugen, Robert A & Senbet, Lemma W, 1981. "Resolving the Agency Problems of External Capital through Options," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 36(3), pages 629-647, June.
    41. Steven N. Kaplan & Luigi Zingales, 1997. "Do Investment-Cash Flow Sensitivities Provide Useful Measures of Financing Constraints?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(1), pages 169-215.
    42. Myers, Stewart C., 1977. "Determinants of corporate borrowing," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 5(2), pages 147-175, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Huai-Chun Lo & Shin-Rong Shiah-Hou, 2022. "The effect of CEO power on overinvestment," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 59(1), pages 23-63, July.
    2. Chaur‐Shiuh Young & Liu‐Ching Tsai & Pei‐Gin Hsieh, 2008. "Voluntary Appointment of Independent Directors in Taiwan: Motives and Consequences," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(9‐10), pages 1103-1137, November.
    3. Thomas Poulsen, 2013. "Corporate control and underinvestment," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 17(1), pages 131-155, February.
    4. Basma Sellami Mezghanni, 2010. "How Ceo Attributes Affect Firm R&D Spending? New Evidence From A Panel Of French Firms," Post-Print hal-00479532, HAL.
    5. Ciaran Driver & Maria João Coelho Guedes, 2017. "R&D and CEO departure date: do financial incentives make CEOs more opportunistic?," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 26(5), pages 801-820.
    6. Driver, Ciaran & Guedes, Maria João Coelho, 2012. "Research and development, cash flow, agency and governance: UK large companies," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(9), pages 1565-1577.
    7. Rokiah Ishak Author_Email:, 2011. "Corporate Performance, Ceo Power And Ceo Turnover: Evidence From Malaysian Public Listed Companies," 2nd International Conference on Business and Economic Research (2nd ICBER 2011) Proceeding 2011-480, Conference Master Resources.
    8. Kwon, Sewon & Ahn, Jae Hwan & Kim, Gi H., 2021. "The impact of shareholder intervention on overinvestment of free cash flow by overconfident CEOs," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    9. Lai, Jung-Ho & Chen, Li-Yu & Chang, Shao-Chi, 2012. "The board mechanism and entry mode choice," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 379-392.
    10. Ahmed Hassanein & Jamal Ali Al-Khasawneh & Hany Elzahar, 2022. "R&D expenditure and managerial ownership: evidence from firms of high-vs-low R&D intensity," Journal of Financial Reporting and Accounting, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 21(3), pages 654-672, January.
    11. Rizwan Ali & Ramiz Ur Rehman & Sana Suleman & Collins Gyakari Ntim, 2022. "CEO attributes, investment decisions, and firm performance: New insights from upper echelons theory," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(2), pages 398-417, March.
    12. Imen Tebourbi & Irene Wei Kiong Ting & Hanh Thi My Le & Qian Long Kweh, 2020. "R&D investment and future firm performance: The role of managerial overconfidence and government ownership," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 41(7), pages 1269-1281, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Benson, Bradley W. & Chen, Yu & James, Hui L. & Park, Jung Chul, 2020. "So far away from me: Firm location and the managerial ownership effect on firm value," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    2. Harvey, Campbell R. & Lins, Karl V. & Roper, Andrew H., 2004. "The effect of capital structure when expected agency costs are extreme," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(1), pages 3-30, October.
    3. Ferreira, Daniel & Athanasakou, Vasiliki & Goh, Lisa, 2017. "Changes in CEO Stock Option Grants: A Look at the Numbers," CEPR Discussion Papers 12318, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    4. Pablo de Andrés-Alonso & Valentín Azofra-Palenzuela & Juan A. Rodríguez-Sanz, 2000. "Endeudamiento, oportunidades de crecimiento y estructura contractual: un contraste empírico para el caso español," Investigaciones Economicas, Fundación SEPI, vol. 24(3), pages 641-679, September.
    5. Fahlenbrach, Rüdiger & Stulz, René M., 2009. "Managerial ownership dynamics and firm value," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(3), pages 342-361, June.
    6. Coles, Jeffrey L. & Daniel, Naveen D. & Naveen, Lalitha, 2006. "Managerial incentives and risk-taking," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(2), pages 431-468, February.
    7. Grzegorz Pawlina & Luc Renneboog, 2005. "Is Investment‐Cash Flow Sensitivity Caused by Agency Costs or Asymmetric Information? Evidence from the UK," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 11(4), pages 483-513, September.
    8. Lewellen, Katharina, 2004. "Financing Decisions When Managers Are Risk Averse," Working papers 4438-03, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Sloan School of Management.
    9. Bradley W. Benson & Wallace N. Davidson III & Hongxia Wang & Dan L. Worrell, 2011. "Deviations from Expected Stakeholder Management, Firm Value, and Corporate Governance," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 40(1), pages 39-81, March.
    10. Stavros E. Arvanitis & Theodoros V. Stamatopoulos & Dimitris Terzakis, 2018. "Is There a Non-linear Relationship of Market Value with Cash and Ownership?," SPOUDAI Journal of Economics and Business, SPOUDAI Journal of Economics and Business, University of Piraeus, vol. 68(1), pages 3-25, January-M.
    11. Opler, Tim & Pinkowitz, Lee & Stulz, Rene & Williamson, Rohan, 1999. "The determinants and implications of corporate cash holdings," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(1), pages 3-46, April.
    12. James, Hui & Benson, Bradley W. & Wu, Chen (Ken), 2017. "Does CEO ownership affect payout policy? Evidence from using CEO scaled wealth-performance sensitivity," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 328-345.
    13. Cassell, Cory A. & Huang, Shawn X. & Manuel Sanchez, Juan & Stuart, Michael D., 2012. "Seeking safety: The relation between CEO inside debt holdings and the riskiness of firm investment and financial policies," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(3), pages 588-610.
    14. Gormley, Todd A. & Matsa, David A. & Milbourn, Todd, 2013. "CEO compensation and corporate risk: Evidence from a natural experiment," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(2), pages 79-101.
    15. Wu, Xueping & Wang, Zheng, 2005. "Equity financing in a Myers-Majluf framework with private benefits of control," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 11(5), pages 915-945, October.
    16. Daniel Broxterman & Tingyu Zhou, 2023. "Information Frictions in Real Estate Markets: Recent Evidence and Issues," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 66(2), pages 203-298, February.
    17. Doukas, John A. & Pantzalis, Christos, 2003. "Geographic diversification and agency costs of debt of multinational firms," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 59-92, January.
    18. Armstrong, Christopher S. & Vashishtha, Rahul, 2012. "Executive stock options, differential risk-taking incentives, and firm value," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(1), pages 70-88.
    19. Benson, Bradley W. & Davidson III, Wallace N., 2009. "Reexamining the managerial ownership effect on firm value," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 15(5), pages 573-586, December.
    20. Bulan, Laarni & Sanyal, Paroma & Yan, Zhipeng, 2010. "A few bad apples: An analysis of CEO performance pay and firm productivity," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 62(4), pages 273-306, July.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:jbfnac:v:34:y:2007:i:5-6:p:819-839. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0306-686X .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.